Arms smuggler for Hamas obliterated

It actually happened a few days ago in Dubai, and there's more news on this now:

JERUSALEM – Days after Hamas accused Israel of electrocuting and poisoning one of its commanders in his Dubai hotel room, Israel claimed Sunday that the dead man played a critical role in smuggling rockets from Iran to Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Though Israel has not acknowledged any role in the killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on Jan. 20, it was one of several mysterious deaths of Arab militants attributed to Israel's Mossad spy agency over the years.

Relatives and Hamas officials said al-Mabhouh was electrocuted and poisoned, perhaps by having his face smothered with a poison-soaked cloth. Despite surviving what his family says were several earlier attempts on his life, he had traveled without bodyguards to avoid drawing attention.

Hamas, which blamed Israel and has vowed to avenge al-Mabhouh's death, released photos Sunday showing that however he was killed, it was brutal enough to leave bruises and red splotches on his face and nose.

Is the AP trying to side with them? I don't know, but big deal how he was killed. He was a murderer, and got what he asked for.

Hamas has been quiet about the reason for al-Mabhouh's travels, though a brother says he was on a mission for the militant group. One senior Hamas figure, Osama Hamdan, denied al-Mabhouh was on a special assignment or that he was planning to head on from Dubai to Iran.

Israeli defense officials said al-Mabhouh was key to smuggling Iranian arms to Gaza, in particular, rockets that could fly as far as the metropolis Tel Aviv, some 40 miles (60 kilometers) to the north.

Several rockets fired during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last winter hit cities as far as 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.

The officials said al-Mabhouh was also suspected in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing confidential intelligence assessments.

And that's why Mabhouh was asking for whatever he got.

We will have to be prepared of course for their revenge attempts, which we can be sure they'll make. For now, this Mabhouh deserved whatever he got.

Bribing the bombers

Britain's government once again comes up with a most clever idea for how to combat terrorists: give them bribes, tons of money! From the UK Times (via FOX News and Michelle Malkin):

Britain is ready to contribute millions of dollars to a fund to buy off Taliban gunmen who are fighting British troops in southern Afghanistan.

More than 60 delegations, from Colombia to Australia, will gather in Lancaster House Thursday Morning to draw up an exit strategy from Afghanistan. Much of it is based on reintegrating the Taliban rank and file, wooing the Taliban leadership and gradually handing security to the Afghan Army and police.

The conference is expected to agree a $500 million, five-year fund for President Karzai to “buy off” insurgents who are not ideologically committed to destroying the West.

Downing Street confirmed that Britain will make a contribution of a “few million.” Germany has agreed to $70 million over five years and the bulk of the money will come from the Japanese aid budget to Afghanistan, diplomats suggested.

In return, the Afghan leader will have to agree to international monitors to strengthen an anti-corruption campaign in his Government.

But is unlikely to keep his word, or carry out his end of the deal. And all that money, ripped off from tons of taxpayers, will only go to helping the terrorists continue to fund their own acts of evil.

If anything, it does tell how jihadists are not all poor and oppressed, as some would have you think.

Rifqa Bary's parents renege on deal

I should've known this was going to happen. The disgusting parents and their CAIR-appointed attorney are doubling-back on the deal that was initally made.

Reading this makes me wonder: is the "lawyer", Omar Tarazi, being indicted for his role in the mail-tampering and fund-stealing case that Brian Smith was behind as well? And should he still be allowed to have any part in this?

More from Jihad Watch.

Update: Jamal Jivanjee was on the radio with Geller about this.

Update 2: it may not be as bad as it sounds.

So, Tony, when will you say it's time to confront the Hamas?

Former British prime minister Tony Blair has stunned the UK by telling them it's time to confront Iran (via Hot Air Headlines):

Anyone who attended the Jan. 29 session of Britain’s Iraq inquiry to watch Tony Blair crumble went home disappointed. When the nation’s former Prime Minister returns to center stage, he seldom fails to remind even his sharpest critics of his prodigious political skills — the very same skills that had enabled him to cajole dubious colleagues and a skeptical Parliament into reluctantly supporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq. An inquiry panel of career diplomats and academics was never likely to dent his composure. (“They’re sitting there like chickens,” squawked an exasperated audience member during a break from proceedings.) Yet Blair’s light grilling still produced a major eye opener: as opponents of the Iraq conflict waited in vain for an apology or some gratifying symptom of inner regret, Blair instead used the platform to argue for opening a new battlefront — against Iran.

I just wish he could say the same about the Hamas, and even Turkey, come to think of it, now that they're slowly backtracking to Islamic fundamentalism. Even Sudan's own terror militias and slavemongering thugs are worth confronting. In fact, so are the Islamofascists taking over Britain itself. They too are worth confronting, don't you think, Tony?

What am I getting at here? Simply put, it's that I'm not sure Tony Blair is being altruistic, or that he really cares about the state of Europe. In fact, how much of an improvement did British forces provide when they were in Iraq either? Did they ensure that Christians in Iraq would be safe?

When those come to mind, it's hard to be sure if this is something to be upbeat about.

Airline authorities ignore scared woman's warnings about suspicious Muslim on plane

I should've spoken about it earlier, but first thing to note is that US Airways caved and made a settlement with the flying imams in Minnesota a few months ago, which I think calls for a boycott of their business. Now, according to this report (also via Debbie Schlussel), the authorities ignored the report of a woman who was suspicious of a Muslim passenger on a plane at the Phila. Intl. Airport.

If this is what's going to happen on airlines now, that's exactly why next time, unlike the case involving crotch-bomber Abdulmutallab, passengers may not be so lucky.

Start with a partial ban on the niqab in France...

Because that way, it'll be a step towards more improvements, like banning other such ghastly and oppressive garments as well. From the UK Telegraph (via Hot Air Headlines):

France will take the first step towards barring Muslim women from wearing the full veil on Tuesday when a parliamentary panel will recommend banning the face-covering in public locations.

The proposal, which calls for a ban of the veils in hospitals and schools, falls short of an outright ban after critics argued that such a move would be divisive and possibly unconstitutional in a country where Islam is the second-largest religion.

The panel's report, to be released on Tuesday, is the culmination of a six-month inquiry into why a tiny minority of Muslim women wear such veils and the implications for France.

I would recommend banning them in banks and libraries too, and maybe even in electronics stores.

But there's some disappointment to be found here too:

Now Muslim religious leaders, along with many experts, warn that a "general and absolute" law banning face-covering attire in the streets would stigmatise all Muslims and have other dire consequences, even driving some to extremism.

They were joined last week by Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders who said they consider such a drastic step unnecessary. Monsignor Andre Vingt-Trois said he was not against anti-veil rules in "precise places," but did not want to see the state become involved with how people dress. "Shall we choose between the full-body veil and nude women in ads on top of a four-wheel drive?" he said last week.

Jewish residents are among the biggest victims, and the Church is too, and they're kowtowing, presumably because they think it'll help them? Any Jewish community member who tries to sabotage an effort to defend the country they're living in is only inviting resentment and making people rightfully concerned feel stupefied. Who are these incredibly stupid people sabotaging Europe's efforts to defend itself from Islamic extremism? They don't speak for me, and are only helping to cause more harm.

Update: while we're on the subject, Italy's foreign minister has also called for a ban of the veil (via Jihad Watch):

Florence, 27 Jan. (AKI) - Italy's foreign minister Franco Frattini on Wednesday voiced his opposition to the face veil. Women wearing the garment pose security issues and symbolise "a refusal to integrate" by Muslim immigrants in a host country, he said.

''Let's ask ourselves if covering one's face isn't the first sign of refusal to integrate and closing oneself off... from the host community and its traditions," Frattini said.

He was speaking at a conference of young publishers taking place in the Tuscan city of Florence, a day after France moved a step closer to banning the face veil.

A French parliamentary committee on Tuesday issueda report recommending a partial ban on the face veil in hospitals, schools, government offices and on public transport.

"It is the symbol of the repression of women, and... of extremist fundamentalism," said French parliament speaker Bernard Accoyer upon the presentation of the report.

France's parliamentary recommendation is expected to be followed by the drafting of a bill and a parliamentary debate on the issue of the face veil, which has sparked heated debate in many European countries.

"I would not legislate on the face veil but would tackle the issue through a wider process," Frattini said, noting that it raised also security problems.

''When someone enters a bank or a public office veiled from head to toe, it seems logical to me there is a security issue," he said.

My thoughts exactly!

Update 2: and in related news, the mosque of an imam who has liberal positions on women's status in Islam and has done interfaith work with the Jewish community was threatened by radicals.

Arab youths study Holocaust at Yad Vashem

I find this very impressive news, though it suggests there's still a ways to go before being really effective:

(IsraelNN.com) A growing number of Arab youths take part in the Holocaust Studies Program at Holocaust Museum Yad VaShem, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor (MoITL). Most of these youths attend professional schools that are run by MoITL.

According to the ministry, a total of 3,800 eleventh grade students from MoITL schools are participating in the Holocaust Studies Program this year, and of these – about 1,500 are Arabs. Last year, the total number of MoITL school students who participated was about 3,200 and 1,300 of them were Arabs.

[...]

Arabs who participate in the studies have special problems with the subject matter, Birger said, including ignorance of basic Holocaust-related terms and mixed feelings including “suspiciousness toward other people's suffering and social alienation toward Israeli society.”

The Holocaust studies program for Arabs therefore treats the Holocaust first as a universal event, and only later tells the personal stories of Jews who were murdered.

This brings up some challenging questions: do they teach clearly about the Arab/Islamic role in the Holocaust, such as that of Haj-Amin el-Husseini? Because if they don't, that's buckling to political correctness! No matter what their reaction is, they have to know if a member of their society committed an act of evil, and how they can learn to avoid and prevent those kind of things from happening in the future.

Erdogan still as horrific as ever

Turkey's terrible leader Tayyip Erdogan, as reported by the AP Wire, which has now picked up on this serious matter, has been taken to task in a special Israeli foreign ministry report:

JERUSALEM (AP) - An internal Israeli Foreign Ministry document accuses Turkey's prime minister of fueling anti-Semitism with his criticism of Israel, an official said Tuesday, threatening to spark a new diplomatic row with one of its few Muslim allies.

The ministry's report comes two weeks after Israel's deputy foreign minister enraged Turkey by summoning the country's ambassador for a humiliating public reprimand shown on Israeli TV. Although Israel was forced to apologize, the report said the reprimand made it clear to Turkey that there must be a limit to its criticism.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been a fierce critic of Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip last year. The report accused Erdogan, leader of an Islamic-oriented party, of going too far with his rhetoric and creating "negative public opinion" toward Israel.

Isn't he the president of Turkey? That's something this article may get wrong. But really, he's an autocrat. (Update: Abdullah Gul, from a search I did on Google, is the president. I suppose that straightens things out a bit.)

"He does this by repeating motifs in his speeches of describing the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza and blaming Israel of committing war crimes, going as far as using anti-Semitic expressions and incitement," the report said.

It said Erdogan, for instance, does not distinguish between "Israeli" and "Jewish," turning criticism of Israel into anti-Jewish diatribes.

It also said he has turned a blind eye to anti-Semitic references in the Turkish media and has made ignorant and insulting comments about Jews.

The report said Erdogan has made comments like "Jews are good with money" without understanding their anti-Semitic character, but officials would give no further examples.

A year ago, a statement attributed to Erdogan said that in its Gaza war, Israel was "perpetrating inhuman actions which would bring it to self-destruction. Allah will sooner or later punish those who transgress the rights of innocents."

Excerpts of the ministry's report were published in the Haaretz daily and confirmed by an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a confidential document.

In Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu rejected the charge. "To criticize Israel is not anti-Semitism," he told independent NTV television. "Criticism of Israel's policies should not be given other meanings." He called on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza.

Maybe it's not anti-semitism to criticize Israel, and there are legitimate reasons to do so if you can find them, but to distort the reasons why Israel has to maintain a blockade on Gaza most certainly is. Israel needs to maintain the barrier because of terrorist attacks. But I guess Turkey considers those okay.

The ties between us and them are going to come sooner or later, and there's no chance Turkey will call off the anti-semitic attacks they have on TV now. And lest we forget, the Turks still don't recognize their genocide of the Armenians during WW1.

Combatting the awful Goldstone report

P. David Hornik at Front Page Magazine writes about how Israel is now trying to fight back against the poison that the UN's Goldstone has cooked up in his deliberately biased attack on Israel.

The New York Times reports this week that the Israeli army is now preparing its own rebuttal to the report, and that “its central aim is to dispel the report’s harsh conclusion—that the death of noncombatants and destruction of civilian infrastructure were part of an official plan to terrorize the Palestinian population.” Although the rebuttal, which is soon to be submitted to UN officials, is supposed to be under wraps until then, correspondent Ethan Bronner quotes some statements by “officers involved in writing the report.”

The best response would be to withdraw from the UN. It does Israel no good to be a member any more than any other democratic nation, and might help to precipitate the UN's closure even sooner. As mentioned before, the UN has to go sooner or later.

Muslim family in France partly blinds daughter for using internet

Another atrocity has been perpetrated by a Muslim family against a daughter. Atlas Shrugs presents an article translated by Nidra Poller from Le Parisien:

A 16 year-old girl may lose her eye as punishment for chatting on MSN. Caught while she was on the computer one day in December, she was beaten and held prisoner in the family apartment in the Raguenets housing project in Saint-Gratien (Val d'Oise). The victim was punished by her two brothers had with the approval of their strict Muslim parents. The four of them had held a family counsel to escape from legal consequences. Yesterday, the brothers and parents were arraigned before a magistrate in the court of Pontoise, charged with deliberate violence, sequestration for more than seven days, and depriving the victim of medical treatment.

The investigation was triggered when the young woman consulted an ophthalmologist one month after the incident, when she was finally able to leave the apartment. Suffering from injury to one eye, she was able to consult a specialist who did not fail [sic] to note that she had been struck. She is in danger of losing the injured eye.

Sequestered for eight days under terrible conditions

At best, according to certain information, she will be left with radically diminished sight in that eye. Yesterday it was suggested the visual acuity would be no more than 1/10th [= 10/20 ?]. The specialist immediately notified authorities and the case was opened.

The court charged the Enghien police department to investigate the case. A preliminary investigation led to the arrest on Wednesday of the victim’s parents and her two brothers. The older brother, who is in his thirties, is suspected of playing a major role. The family kept the teen prisoner in the apartment for eight days under terrible conditions.

The mayor of Saint-Gratien, Jacqueline Eustache-Brinio—of [Sarkozy’s] UMP party—said: “This cannot be tolerated in France in the 21st Century. You do not put out the eye of a child for religious reasons. The parents have to understand that this is a very serious act.”

What needs to be done is to put them through hard labor as sentence for their torture. That's one way to send the turds a lesson.

Netanyahu: world must learn from Holocaust

Benjamin Netanyahu makes an important statement:

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's prime minister has called on the international community to band together against enemies calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Benjamin Netanyahu's comments were clearly directed at Iran.

He spoke Monday at a ceremony held at Israel's national Holocaust memorial where the blueprints of the notorious Auschwitz death camp were unveiled.

Netanyahu said the lesson of the Holocaust is to "stop bad things when they are small."

He said: "There is new Jew-hatred in our midst. There are new calls for the extermination of the Jewish state."

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly questioned the Holocaust and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." Israel also fears Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

This has been said around the same time that the Jewish Agency has warned that anti-semitism is on the rise again in Europe:

Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein directly linked worsening anti-Semitism with the United Nations “Goldstone Report” on alleged war crimes in last year’s Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign aimed at putting a halt to eight years of lethal rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

Israel is preparing a response to the Goldstone report, and Edelstein commented Sunday, "It is certainly already clear that, for many of the 'incidents' and 'crimes' described in the report, no proof was found.” He said he will tell U.N. Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon that the report fueled attacks, many of them violent, against Jews around the world.

[...]

The anti-Semitic attacks “were mostly perpetrated by Muslims from large local Muslim communities, including Palestinians, mainly in France, Britain, Belgium, Scandinavia, Germany and the United States,” the report stated. In France, there were 631 incidents in the first six months compared with 464 for all of 2008, and more than 100 incidents were recorded in Paris, where the involvement of Muslim teenagers was noted. Among the attacks in France was one on a handicapped Jewish woman.

A good point is to be made about how the leading perpetrators of anti-semitism today in Europe are Islamofascists. At the same time, it's also leftists like Goldstone.

Ethiopian jetliner mysteriously crashes near Lebanon

A plane crash has tragically taken place, and being as it was circa Lebanon, one has to wonder if terror was the cause:

BEIRUT (AP) - An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying 90 people caught fire and crashed into the sea minutes after taking off from Beirut early Monday, setting off a frantic search as passenger seats, baby sandals and other debris washed ashore.

No survivors had been found by nightfall, and Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalife told reporters that emergency workers had recovered 21 bodies.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. Lebanon has seen stormy weather since Sunday night, with crackling thunder, lightning and rain.

"We saw fire falling down from the sky into the sea," said Khaled Naser, a gas station attendant who saw the plane go down around 2:30 a.m., crashing into the frigid waters of the Mediterranean that had reached just 64 degrees (18 degrees Celsius) by Monday afternoon.

The Lebanese army said in a statement the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said terrorism was not suspected in the crash of Flight 409, which was headed for the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

"Sabotage is ruled out as of now," he said.

Just how do we know they're not trying to cover anything up?

The wife of Denis Pietton, the French ambassador to Lebanon, was on the plane, according to the French embassy.

Keep her in your prayers.

Maariv deserves to be sued for slandering Sara Netanyahu

The prime minister's wife has opened up a lawsuit against the leftist Maariv paper:

JERUSALEM (AP) - The wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sued an Israeli newspaper on Monday for libel and defamation of character, claiming the Maariv daily is "maliciously trying to humiliate" her.

Sara Netanyahu is claiming damages of $270,000 from Maariv and demanding an apology and a correction for an item the paper ran last Friday. The story stated that Mrs. Netanyahu fired a 70-year-old gardener at the prime minister's official residence. The gardener lost a son in one of Israel's wars.

Mrs. Netanyahu claimed in a suit filed at a Jerusalem court that the man was never fired, continues to work at the residence and the news item contained not "one grain of truth."

She said reporter Ben Caspit never asked for her response, and the paper was trying to humiliate her and "portray her as an insensitive woman who abuses the weak, is cruel to an old gardener and fires a bereaved father for no reason."

The suit comes a week after a former housekeeper sued Sara Netanyahu for alleged verbal abuse and other mistreatment.

Maariv is slandering her, and that's what they did a decade ago too, harrassing a woman for being married to a right-wing politician.

The new lawsuit sparked a media frenzy, with Maariv and Yediot Ahronot running huge front page headlines critical of the Netanyahus. The two dailies are engaged in a bitter circulation war with "Yisrael Hayom," a newspaper distributed free of charge and strongly supportive of Netanyahu.

What that part signals is that they're vengeful of Yisrael Hayom because they're publishing what draws the crowds, and they don't like that. Actually, even the AP Wire is clearly filled with jealousy.

I think she's doing the right thing this time to fight back against these disgusting, ungrateful papers whose ownerships have a problem with competition and honesty. A decade ago, they and the police even targeted the Netanyahus on trumped up charges of taking gifts and other items against the rules, when in fact they had returned all required items. It's time now that the Netanyahus start fighting back against the resurging hostility of the press, which again looks out to commit more defamation.

Great free speech victory

Jacob Laskin at Front Page Magazine has an interview with Ilya Shapiro of the CATO Foundation about the important ruling the Supreme Court made in favor of overturning a law that could corporations and unions from running ads 30 days before elections, a problem caused by McCain-Feingold's foolishness. More on this from Steve Chapman at Town Hall.

In related news, Michelle Malkin advises to look out for McCain regression syndrome.

UK priest uses police to intimidate blogger

A writer at Harry's Place tells that an Anglican priest by the name of Reverend Sizer has been trying to use the police to harass a blogger who's done research on the vicar's associations with terrorists and anti-semites. Another example of how the UK is deteriorating.

Women in Muslim Sudan receieve lashings for wearing pants

In this article on Israel National News, it's told:

(IsraelNN.com) Sudanese Muslim officials arrest tens of thousands of women a year for wearing "indecent clothing,” including trousers, and many have been fined and subjected to 40 whip lashes. One woman tells related the story after being spared the punishment, apparently because she attracted too much bad publicity.

Lubna al-Hussein told her story on Egyptian television last month, and the interview was translated by Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Hussein is a journalist and has diplomatic immunity because she works for the United Nations, and her fight for women’s rights left her with a sentence that was not carried out although she waived her immunity. However, dozens of other women arrested along with her for wearing "indecent clothing” suffered a worse fate.

Her crime was wearing trousers.

Read the rest too. I hope she realizes that the UN isn't going to help her or any other Sudanese women who's been victimized by this repugnant policy. Why, they've practically helped make it possible for Islamofascism to take over the country! And that's why they've got to go sooner or later.

CAIR's "star witnesses" in Rifqa Bary case now charged with embezzlement and mail tampering

A very eye-opening development has come up in the case involving the Global Revolution Church, which betrayed Blake and Beverly Lorenz: Brian Smith, one of the heads of the church, and Omar Tarazi, the CAIR lawyer for the Bary parents, are now facing charges for embezzling and mail tampering. Among some of the details here:

Perhaps the most disturbing element to the crimes committed by Brian Smith, Tom Sanchez and Jeff Parker is that they have illegally embezzled and/or misappropriated funds sent to the church from all over the country by Rifqa's supporters intended for Rifqa’s legal defense fund. The Orlando law firm overseeing her defense fund, Fowler, O'Quinn, Feeney & Sneed, confirmed this week that they have not found any records of EVER receiving any monies from Global Revolution Church sent to the church designated for Rifqa’s legal defense. I have been provided copies of checks sent to the church designated to Rifqa's defense fund, confirming that monies were in fact received, but never forwarded to Fowler, O'Quinn, Feeney & Sneed.

Anyone who sent checks to the Global Revolution Church or transferred money through the church's PayPal account since August for Rifqa's defense is encouraged to contact the Orlando Police Department at 321-235-5300 (complaint desk) to report the funds missing.

The “Judas Three” are also facing federal mail tampering charges. After the trio engineered a church leadership coup and fired the Lorenzs back in September, they intercepted personal mail intended for the Lorenzs sent to the church post office box. Instead of forwarding the mail to the Lorenz’s in accordance with federal law, they sent the mail to CAIR attorney Omar Tarazi, who is representing Rifqa's parents in Ohio. Tarazi, knowing that the mail had been illegally obtained, then attempted to use this purloined correspondence to sabotage negotiations with Rifqa's legal team, making him an accessory after the fact to the Judas Three's felonious mail tampering. Additionally, Tarazi never notified postal authorities of the crime as required of an officer of the court. The mail tampering was attested to in an affidavit submitted to the Ohio court last month by Blake Lorenz (see earlier post)

I expect following this that Tarazi will be disbarred from law practice, and the Ohio court dealing with the case will make sure not to allow CAIR officials to represent any more cases dealt with there. As for Smith and his 2 cohorts at the church, this is truly disgraceful that people presumed to be God-fearing were stealing people's money. It will likely deal a blow to Global Revolution Church's credibility as long as they're under the management of the Judas Three, whom I hope will spend time in prison for assisting in potentially endangering the life of a girl fleeing an abusive family.

Update: more from Pamela Geller here and here.

Tefillin is a "device"?

Before I get around to what I think would make a more fitting description for this concept in Judaism, what happened? A plane flying from New York to Louisville landed in Philadelphia and was delayed because a Jewish teen's tefillin prayers caused a bomb scare (Hat tip: Political Pistachio). See what the Islamist aggression has led to? Fear of even religious prayer items even for Judaism.

But are tefillin a device, as they say? I don't know if that's how to describe them. Maybe as a prayer accessory or a concept, but because tefillin don't serve the same purpose as say, a screwdriver or a pliers, I don't think you can call them a device. It's a small leather and wooden box with paper inside with biblical texts.

I'm glad the boy was cooperative. It's still a shame this had to happen.

Others on the subject include NY's Funniest Rabbi, Maggie's Notebook, Prairie Pundit, Vos iz Neias, The Astute Bloggers, Isreally Cool, Muqata.

Geert Wilders on trial

The day has come, and now Dutch freedom fighter Geert Wilders is being put on trial in the Netherlands for daring to protest the Islamization of Europe.

Jihad Watch has a transcript. This cannot not be ignored. What they're doing by prosecuting him and his right to free speech in defense of his country is very serious.

Update: Daniel Pipes stands by Geert.

Security risk deported

The JTA reports that a Jewish-American journalist working for a palestinian news agency in Israel called Ma'an has been shown the door:

Jared Malsin, 26, the English-language editor of the Palestinian Ma'an news agency, was placed on a flight out of Israel Wednesday. He had spent the last week at an airport detention facility, according to Ma'an.

[...]

According to Ma'an, interrogation transcripts obtained by the news service show that Malsin was considered a security risk on the basis of his political beliefs, determined by his news stories that criticize the State of Israel. The transcripts also said, according to Ma'an, that security officials believe Malsin "exploited his Jewishness" to gain entry to Israel.

I'm sure there's more to this than meets the eye, but Ma'an clearly isn't going to say so.

It looks like Rifqa Bary will not be forced to return to parents

Atlas Shrugs reports what we must hope is relieving news, that Rifqa Bary will remain in foster care until her 18th. In this article from Meredith "hijabed" Heagney:

The long legal dispute over runaway teen convert Fathima Rifqa Bary apparently ended in Franklin County Juvenile Court late this afternoon when the girl and her parents agreed that she'll stay in the custody of Children Services and the family will try to resolve their issues with counseling.

That leaves two options for Rifqa, who is in foster care: She could eventually reconcile with her parents and go home or stay in foster care until her 18th birthday on Aug. 10.

Rifqa admitted she was unruly when she fled her parents' home last July to live with a Christian pastor and his family in Florida. She said at the time that her father, Mohamed, had threatened to kill her for abandoning the family's Muslim faith, although authorities say they never found credible evidence that that was true.

Mohamed and Aysha Bary and their daughter all agreed today not to continue with the Juvenile Court dependency case. The next hearing, besides a minor hearing regarding a gag order on Monday, is set for her birthday.

Today's decision ends months of legal action in Florida and Ohio.

In a statement read by Rifqa's attorneys, both she and her parents said they loved each other and believe counseling is the best route.

It's not great that she had to "plea bargain", but I suppose it's the best choice for now.

Pamela Geller's correspondent, legal expert John Jay, says that nobody can know for sure what the outcome is until the official court papers are obtained. So we still need to hope that all has turned out sufficiently okay.

I would assume that the court understood the controversy of the whole issue, and didn't want to be held responsible for endangering Rifqa's life by returning her to the custody of her parents. And, maybe they also realized that the rally planned if there's to be another hearing at the date that was supposed to be the 28th of January could also raise more attention and/or controversy that they'd rather avoid. But if they've made a fair enough offering for Rifqa now, that's a good thing, and they'll be doing right to ensure her safety.

Update: better take note of this important info provided by the Jawa Report. There's still some very serious problems involved, like CAIR's knowledge of her foster home; that's why her attorneys want her moved to another one.

Update 2: here's an item about eyewitness accounts, also important for reading. What it tells is that this bargain came about because the parents feared what witnesses could tell, so they decided to ask for this.

Update 3: and here's Phyllis Chesler's entry on this, well worth reading too.

Others on the subject include Extra Thoughts, My Two Cents Worth, Jihad Watch, Former Muslims United, Gates of Vienna, Tundra Tabloids, Weasel Zippers, Florida Security Council, The Millstone Diaries.

Massechussettes elects Republican Scott Brown

Looks like Obama could be getting a damper on his plans for government-run healthcare, now that Scott Brown has been elected Senator in what's been a liberal state for many decades.

Maybe this'll also signal the loss of the Democrats' grip on Massechussettes after so long a time.

Others on the subject include Ace of Spades HQ, Ed Driscoll, Stop the ACLU, The American Pundit, Michelle Malkin, Fire Andrea Mitchell, Founding Bloggers, Gina Cobb, Paxalles.

Israel doesn't need a close relationship with Turkey if they're going to turn to darkness

Haaretz reports on how Turkey is signaling its wish to distance itself from Israel (via Jihad Watch):

The rift in Israeli-Turkish relations is the result of Ankara turning away from secularism and toward more radical Islam, Israel's military intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

The comments to a parliamentary committee by Maj. General Amos Yadlin reflected wider concern in Israel and followed a high profile visit to Turkey on Sunday by Defense Minister Ehud Barak that was meant to help mend the relationship after a sharp diplomatic row.

"Turkey no longer needs a close relationship with Israel," a parliamentary official quoted Yadlin as telling the foreign affairs committee of the Knesset.

"They are currently in the midst of a fundamental process of moving further away from the secular Ataturk approach, closer to a radical approach," Yadlin said, adding that key factors had been an easing of Turkish concerns about Syria and Ankara's failure to clinch membership of the European Union.

Well, if they don't need a close relationship with us, then I guess we don't need a close relationship with them either, now do we? If they're only going to step further back into the darkness of Islamofascism, to say nothing of their increasing backtrack to anti-semitism and racism, including this horror, then there's little else that can be said.

Violent crimes by Somali immigrants in US

And it seems to be the result of the previous Dubya administration. Take these, for example. And this horrific one. And even this one. Just don't expect the Obama administration to improve upon this.

America is going to have to wake up to the very serious case that uncontrolled immigration of Islamists has brought to their shores.

Saudi prince al-Waleed seeking to increase influence in NewsCorp

I hope conservatives everywhere are paying careful attention to this, because it is NOT good news that Rupert Murdoch is maintaining relations with a man as disgusting as Prince al-Waleed Bin Talal, who's now looking to build up his stakes in News Corp.

You can be sure that FOX themselves won't make any genuine mention of this; the discussions between these two have been largely done in quiet. But those outside will do well to make some fuss. And it wouldn't be a good idea to think this doesn't matter just because say, Andrew Breitbart is gaining as a conservative news mogul. This needs to be addressed clearly, because that Murdoch would ever do business with Talal to begin with IS a slap in the face to the audience he's allegedly catering to, and Talal is a very dangerous influence, especially if we recall that he tried to give a "donation" following 9-11 with strings attached to NYC, which Giuliani rightfully rejected.

Israel helps in rescue efforts in Haiti

Another thing I wish I could've thought to work upon earlier, but only now have been able to. Here's a video report on the IDF's participation in rescue efforts in Haiti following the horrible earthquake that took place.

Here's also another report on the subject itself from the AP Wire.

Muslim child brides on the black market in Britain

Hege Storhaug at Front Page Magazine writes about the sickly case of girls young as 9, just like Ayesha, being sold into marriage slavery right within Britain, and the authorities are doing nothing about it:

First, when I say that the marriage of nine-year-old girls in today’s Britain (and the rest of the EU, for that matter) is unsurprising, my statement is based on my own 17 years of experience in the field of immigration: forms of assault based on tradition and religion – including child marriage, forced marriage, genital mutilation, so-called honor-related offenses such as rape and murder – have become established here as a result of immigration, mostly from Muslim countries. Instances of these offenses have been documented in countries such as Norway (where, to be sure, there have been no recorded cases of marriage to girls as young as nine, but where the marriage of an 11-year-old came to light in a TV documentary that I worked on as journalist; such cases have also been known in Sweden). The only phenomenon that has not been documented in Norway thus far is forced eating by girls before they are to be married off. I was told about this practice by feminists in Paris in 2003, and the phenomenon had been imported into France by immigrants, mostly from Mali. Girls are locked up and fed like geese before being married, because in their culture being fat is considered beautiful.

This being said, the news from Britain, which has been reported in the Times, deserves widespread attention. Because the authorities are obviously aware of very serious information about actual children who are supposedly under the protection of those very same authorities. In other words, Britain’s Ministry of Justice, if the Times is to be believed, knows who these children’s parents are, parents who have attempted to arrange for the rape of their own children. For this is what we are talking about here: the deprival of children’s freedom, plus countless years of repeated rape. Such phenomena must force authorities to sit down with a cool head and a warm heart and ask themselves: who are we, and where are we going? What are we doing to ourselves as a nation, to our heritage, to our culture, to our future? According to the Times, however, British authorities are not doing anything of the kind. Here comes the proposed initiative, and before you read this sentence you had better take a deep breath. The Ministry of Justice says that the children’s parents are receiving help from the authorities “to solve the problem.”

Then we can't possibly trust them to take any serious action to curb this filthy black marketeering, can we? One more reason to stay away from that awful, awful country.

Female Algerian playright in France attacked by men who tried to burn her

The theater society of France is worried that this is an attack on freedom of expression, and rightly so. That aside, this is also a grave crime that was attempted. From RFI (via Jihad Watch):

An investigation into an attack in Paris on the Algerian actress and playwright Rayhana has been handed over to anti-terrorist police. The investigators suspect the attack was linked to Rayhana's play, A mon âge, je me cache encore pour fumer, which focuses on the treatment of women in Algeria.

The 45-year-old was attacked on Tuesday night outside the theatre in Paris where her play is showing. Two men insulted her in Arabic and poured petrol over her. They then threw a cigarette at her, which failed to ignite.

The prefecture of police confirmed what it called an attempted homicide. A judicial source said the preliminary investigation is being launched under the anti-terrorist section of the brigade criminelle, or crime unit.

Covered in petrol, Rayhana performed her play regardless. She has lived in France since 2000, when she left Algeria fearing for her safety. She told the French media it was the first time she had been assaulted since she took refuge in France, after leaving Algeria because of threats from Islamists.

Politicians and Muslim associations have expressed horror at the attack. The Minister of Culture Frédéric Mitterrand expressed sympathy and said he admired Rayhana's courage. The Secretary for Urban Affairs Fadela Amara described the incident was intolerable.

The Muslim association Foi et Pratique also joined in the condemnation of the assault, saying "nothing can prepare us for such acts and nothing can explain them".

The French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers says it is worried that freedom of expression is under threat in France.

The feminist movement Ni putes ni soumises will hold a demonstration tomorrow morning in front of the theatre.

First, note that the Muslim group who allegedly condemned this don't want to admit what the Religion of Peace really teaches. Second, I'm not sure the theater is the place where to demonstrate. It's got to be somewhere more challenging.

CAIR may have found out where Rifqa Bary is staying

In Atlas Shrugs's latest update (via Fiery Spirited Zionist), and also in this article featured on Counter Jihad, we're told that CAIR or some other Muslim terrorist front group may have gained access to the knowledge of where Rifqa Bary's current foster home is, and this could put her life in danger.

This is one more reason why it's important to campaign for her freedom but most importantly, for her safety. Jamal Jivanjee tells that the next scheduled court date is January 28th, and that's when to be ready to attend a rally for her.

Note simultaneously that the Columbus Dispatch's Meredith Heagney has drawn moral equations between Rifqa and her parents, and also smears the Lorenz's. Heagney is still quite scummy.

Update: here's another item on this from Front Page Magazine.

Jewish woman lucky to escape Gaza with her children

One of those foolish enough to marry a Muslim man has now escaped with her 4 children, from the Gaza strip, no less (via The Jawa Report):

Dressed in a hijab and running for her life, Oshrit Ochana - with her four children in tow - reached Gaza's Erez crossing midday on Tuesday, and was ushered through to the Israeli side.

Ochana, a 29-year-old Jewish Israeli who grew up in Ashdod, married a Muslim man seven years ago and then moved to Gaza with him.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post just hours after her escape while on her way to her family's home in Ashdod to celebrate, she said she had reached the decision months ago to get away from her husband, Abdallah, who ekes out a living smuggling goods through the elaborate system of tunnels connecting Rafah with Egypt.

"That was no life for me and the children," she said. "The children had dreams that I wanted to make true. And we couldn't as long we remained in Gaza.

"Now I am trying to forget everything."

An opportunity to escape presented itself after Abdallah was arrested in Egypt for attempting to travel illegally to Europe.

Ochana and her four children - Mahmoud, seven; Abdel Rahman, five; Sali, six; and Asma, not yet two - left the apartment they shared with her husband's family on Tuesday morning. She told her brother-in-law that she was accompanying her sister-in-law to school and was going to buy a few things for the kids before returning to the small apartment.

But she had other plans.

Ochana's family in Ashdod had already contacted Yad L'Achim, a haredi anti-missionary organization that also helps Jewish Israeli women extricate themselves from marriages with Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.

The Ochana family told the haredi organization about Ochana's predicament and Yad L'Achim went into action.

"We notified [Shas chairman and Interior Minister] Eli Yishai and the Defense Ministry," said Rabbi Shalom Dov Lipshitz, chairman of Yad L'Achim.

"At first, security officials were suspicious. They were concerned that she might be a spy or a suicide bomber," Lipshitz said.

A decision was made that Ochana would make her way to the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, where Israeli military officials would be notified and she would be let through. Yad L'Achim promised to find a hideout for Ochana and her children and to help them financially.

But making it to Erez, on the extreme northern side of the Gaza Strip, from Rafah, located about 60 kilometers away on the extreme southern side, was not easy. Suspicious that she might try to escape, Ochana's in-laws were carefully watching her.

As she stood in downtown Rafah, her brother-in-law's threat that he would kill her if she tried to run away still rang in her ears. Still, she waved down a taxi. She knew she had to take the chance.

Ochana piled her children inside and ordered the driver to take her to the Erez crossing.

The driver was suspicious of a woman wearing a hijab and speaking Arabic with a Hebrew accent who wanted to cut across the Gaza Strip to reach Erez.

"I told him that my father was very sick and I needed to visit him as quickly as possible."

She managed to pass through the Hamas-controlled side of the Erez crossing. On the Israeli side, the commanding officer had been notified that Ochana would be arriving.

Israeli security officials began questioning Ochana. But when one of her children passed out due to the excitement and dehydration, the interrogation was cut short and the Ochanas were rushed to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.

On Tuesday evening, Ochana celebrated her new-found freedom with her family in Ashdod. She plans to change the names of her children to Hebrew names.

Yad L'Achim's Lipshitz, who has helped other women escape from marriages with Arabs, said there were "hundreds" of Israeli women in similar situations.

"Some are in Gaza, others are in Nablus or Tulkarm, and there are some in neighboring Arab countries," he said.

"We are not a racist organization. But we do not want to lose Jewish souls. We lost enough in the Holocaust," he said.

Ochana warned other women not to make the mistake she made.

"It was stupid," she said. "I had a friend who introduced me to Abdallah. We had fun together. We danced and drank - I got carried away. I was his lapdog."

Ochana said she would not miss Abdallah. "I am still young enough to start my life over again."

I'd written about this before, and it's a lesson well worth noting - do NOT marry an Islamist. It will only result in disaster.

Bosses of Fort Hood jihadist who failed to act could be punished

The AP/Washington Post reports that Malik Nidal Hasan's superior officers who did nothing about his extremist views could face penalties:

WASHINGTON -- As many as eight Army officers could face discipline for failing to do anything when the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood rampage displayed erratic behavior early in his military career, two officials familiar with the case said.

[...]

Several midlevel officers overlooked or failed to act on red flags in Hasan's lax work habits and fixation on religion, the officials said Thursday. Hasan was an odd duck and a loner who was passed along from office to office and job to job despite professional failings that included missed or failed exams and physical fitness requirements, the review found.

Findings about Hasan and those who supervised him are contained in a confidential addendum to a larger report about the Pentagon's handling of potential extremism in the ranks and readiness to handle the sort of mass casualties Hasan allegedly inflicted.

[...]

Earlier, another official familiar with the findings said the five- to eight officers who could face discipline were supervisors who knew about Hasan's shortcomings and looked the other way or who did not fully reflect concerns about Hasan in professional evaluations.

The officers supervised Hasan when he was a medical student and during his early work as an Army psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

[...]

Hasan got passing grades and a promotion in part because disturbing information about his behavior and performance was not recorded by superiors or properly passed to others who might have stepped in, the report found.

As Hasan's training progressed, his strident views on Islam became more pronounced as did worries about his competence as a medical professional. Yet his superiors continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks and led to his eventual assignment at Fort Hood.

Those officers must be dealt with seriously, and can no longer serve in the military. They should in fact be sent to prison and forced to pay the families of the victims for damages.

At Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer argues that if the military continues to be pro-Islam and refuses to take the elements into consideration, it will not be possible to protect the army from violent predators on the inside. Therefore, this current news suggests it's all just face-saving and window-dressing.

England's misogyny

If you're interested in learning more about the madness that's gripped Britain, including how crap like this came to be, here's a non-fiction review in the UK Times of "The English Marriage: Tales of Love, Money and Adultery" that tells some history of how male-dominated Britain viewed women (Hat tip: My Right Word):

The level of cruelty towards women in traditional British society beggars belief. Legally, a married woman had no personal identity and her husband could do what he liked with her body, her freedom, her money or her children. As late as 1782 a man still had the legal right to beat his wife as long as the stick was no thicker than his thumb — hence, the “rule of thumb”. Murdering a wife was merely a felony, while female infidelity merited a death sentence since it could affect a child’s legitimacy. A woman who killed her husband was guilty of high treason, a crime routinely punished with “death by burning” until 1790.

Sound familiar? Eerily enough, it sounds vaguely similar to Saudi Arabia's views on women. In sharp contrast, some communities in rural France over the centuries, for example, condemned wife-beaters and raised a ruckus about it, as I once read about in The Illustrated Library of the World & its Peoples, from the mid-60s.

Witchcraft was illegal in Britain in those past centuries too, and it wouldn't surprise me one bit if many women, far more than men, were victims of the witch-smear tactics than men were of warlock-smears.

Seattle jihadist sentenced to life

Some justice has finally been done in the case of Naveed Haq, the murderous jihadist in Seattle (Hat tip: Jihad Watch):

Naveed Haq was sentenced to life in prison this morning for barging into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle 3 ½ years ago, killing one woman and wounding five others amid an anti-Israel tirade.

Addressing the court for the first time, Haq blamed the shootings on mental illness and lack of treatment.

"I understand you are angry," said Haq, 34. "The tragedy wouldn't have occurred if it wasn't for bad medical care and mental illness."

Haq apologized for the attack "from the depth of my being."

"I am not a man filled with hate," said the Tri-Cities man. "That Naveed Haq at the Federation that July day was not the real Naveed Haq."

When he starts arguing that he's insane, you know he's using this psychological argument as a last resort. And his "apology" should not be accepted, as it's more likely to be taqiyya.

Does this tell something about Detroit?

Four Saudi men disrupted a flight on the same airline the crotch-bomber took:

Sources tell Fox 2 that a flight from Amsterdam into Detroit Metropolitan Airport was held on the tarmac after landing because of unruly behavior by some of the passengers.

The source says four men from Saudi Arabia were saying something in Arabic that alarmed four on-board Federal Air Marshals. The Marshals speak Arabic. A decision was made to stop the plane on the tarmac away from the passenger terminal and remove the men from the plane.

Once the men were removed, the rest of passengers were then taken to the terminal for deboarding. The Transportation Security Administration says the unruly passengers were interviewed by Customs and Border Protection officials. But the TSA says the passengers were released and no arrests were made.

And it's clear the authorities don't want to consider any challenging questions here. However, does this have anything to do with the fact that just near Detroit is another side city called Dearborn, with many Muslim residents? What it suggests is that quite a few Islamists like the ones who caused the scare here were flying to Dearbornistan because they find it quite welcome there.

Others on the subject include Michelle Malkin, The Snooper Report, Riehl World View.

Another Facebook fatwa against Rifqa Bary

Atlas Shrugs found another group on Facebook condoning death for apostasy for Rifqa Bary.

Again, this begs the question - is this going to factor into the next court hearing, or not?

Update: here's more examples of these Facebook fatwas, that even acknowledge that death is advocated for apostates. Truly disturbing.

Update 2: now, Islamists on the web are asking if Rifqa is the "dajjal", their version of the anti-Christ!

It's okay, Ankara, you may recall your ambassador

Following deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon's slam against Turkey for their continued anti-semitism and what the Turks think is "belittling" them, they're now considering a recall:

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon's apology for the "hazing" of Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol on Monday failed to calm the waters, with Turkish President Abdullah Gul quoted by the Turkish CNBC-e television on Wednesday as saying Ankara would recall its ambassador on Friday unless political tensions between the two countries were resolved.

Turkish sources told The Jerusalem Post that Ayalon's apology was not sufficient, and that Ankara expected an open apology addressed to it.

According to the sources, Ayalon's apology was not clear, and while some Israeli media outlets reported his words as an apology, others said it was not one.

The "news" is contradictory, the sources said, and there has not been any official contact on the issue.

Earlier Wednesday, Ayalon said that his "protest against Turkey's attacks against Israel are still valid, but with that, it is not my custom to insult the honor of ambassadors, and in the future I will clarify my position through acceptable diplomatic means."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday morning issued a statement saying he was pleased with Ayalon's apology.

"The prime minister believes the criticism of Turkey by the Foreign Ministry was justified, but should have been relayed in the usual diplomatic means," the statement read.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who was in Cyprus for an official visit Wednesday, said that Israel was interested in maintaining good ties with Turkey, but that talks between the countries to resolve the current tensions must be conducted while maintaining mutual respect.

Regarding the reason for the recent diplomatic rift, the broadcast on Turkish television of a series with anti-Semitic overtones, Lieberman said that "Israel will not tolerate the dissemination of anti-Semitic content nor any words of incitement against Jews."

The Post has been trying to smear Ayalon for this, when IMO, he did the right thing to make a condemnation, and honestly, even Celikkol himself was asking for it, by being seated in a smaller chair.

And I really won't mind if Turkey decides to recall the ambassador, because with the disgust they've been churning out lately, it makes little difference. Also, they've getting cozier with Syria and Iran...

Miep Gies passes away at 100

Miep Gies, the Dutchwoman who helped Anne Frank and her family hide from the nazis, is now dead at 100:

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Miep Gies, the office secretary who defied the Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family for two years and saved the teenager's diary not, has died, the Anne Frank Museum said Tuesday. She was 100.

Gies' Web site reported that she died Monday after a brief illness. The report was confirmed by museum spokeswoman Maatje Mostar, but she gave no details. The British Broadcasting Corp. said she died in a nursing home after suffering a fall last month.

Gies was the last of the few non-Jews who supplied food, books and good cheer to the secret annex behind the canal warehouse where Anne, her parents, sister and four other Jews hid for 25 months during World War II.

After the apartment was raided by the German police, Gies gathered up Anne's scattered notebooks and papers and locked them in a drawer for her return after the war. The diary, which Anne Frank was given on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life in hiding from June 12, 1942 until August 1, 1944.

Gies refused to read the papers, saying even a teenager's privacy was sacred. Later, she said if she had read them she would have had to burn them because they incriminated the "helpers."

Anne Frank died of typhus at age 15 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, just two weeks before the camp was liberated. Gies gave the diary to Anne's father Otto, the only survivor, who published it in 1947.

After the diary was published, Gies tirelessly promoted causes of tolerance. She brushed aside the accolades for helping hide the Frank family as more than she deserved — as if, she said, she had tried to save all the Jews of occupied Holland.

"This is very unfair. So many others have done the same or even far more dangerous work," she wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press days before her 100th birthday last February.

"The Diary of Anne Frank" was the first popular book about the Holocaust, and has been read by millions of children and adults around the world in some 65 languages.

For her courage, Gies was bestowed with the "Righteous Gentile" title by the Israeli Holocaust museum Yad Vashem. She has also been honored by the German Government, Dutch monarchy and educational institutions.

Nevertheless, Gies resisted being made a character study of heroism for the young.

"I don't want to be considered a hero," she said in a 1997 online chat with schoolchildren.

"Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary."

Born Hermine Santrouschitz on Feb. 15, 1909 in Vienna, Gies moved to Amsterdam in 1922 to escape food shortages in Austria. She lived with a host family who gave her the nickname Miep.

In 1933, Gies took a job as an office assistant in the spice business of Otto Frank. After refusing to join a Nazi organization in 1941, she avoided deportation to Austria by marrying her Dutch boyfriend, Jan Gies.

As the Nazis ramped up their arrests and deportations of Dutch Jews, Otto Frank asked Gies in July 1942 to help hide his family in the annex above the company's canal-side warehouse on Prinsengracht 263 and to bring them food and supplies.

"I answered, 'Yes, of course.' It seemed perfectly natural to me. I could help these people. They were powerless, they didn't know where to turn," she said years later.

Jan and Miep Gies worked with four other employees in the firm to sustain the Franks and four other Jews sharing the annex. Jan secured extra food ration cards from the underground resistance. Miep cycled around the city, alternating grocers to ward off suspicions from this highly dangerous activity.

In her e-mail to the AP last February, Gies remembered her husband, who died in 1993, as one of Holland's unsung war heroes. "He was a resistance man who said nothing but did a lot. During the war he refused to say anything about his work, only that he might not come back one night. People like him existed in thousands but were never heard," she wrote.

Touched by Anne's precocious intelligence and loneliness, Miep also brought Anne books and newspapers while remembering everybody's birthdays and special days with gifts.

"It seems as if we are never far from Miep's thoughts," Anne wrote.

In her own book, "Anne Frank Remembered," Gies recalled being in the office when the German police, acting on a tip that historians have failed to trace, raided the hide-out in August 1944.

A policeman opened the door to the main office and pointed a revolver at the three employees, telling them to sit quietly. "Bep, we've had it," Gies whispered to Bep Voskuijl.

After the arrests, she went to the police station to offer a bribe for the Franks' release, but it was too late. On Aug. 8, they were sent to Westerbork, a concentration camp in eastern Holland from where they were later packed into cattle cars and deported to Auschwitz. A few months later, Anne and her sister Margot were transported to Bergen-Belsen.

Two of the helpers, Victor Kugler and Johannes Kleiman, were sent to labor camps, but survived the war.

Around 140,000 Jews lived in the Netherlands before the 1940-45 Nazi occupation. Of those, 107,000 were deported to Germany and only 5,200 survived. Some 24,000 Jews went into hiding, of which 8,000 were hunted down or turned in.

After the war, Otto Frank returned to Amsterdam and lived with the Gies family until he remarried in 1952. Miep worked for him as he compiled the diary, then devoted herself to talking about the diary and answering piles of letters with questions from around the world.

After Otto Frank's death in 1980, Gies continued to campaign against Holocaust-deniers and to refute allegations that the diary was a forgery.

She suffered a stroke in 1997 which slightly affected her speech, but she remained generally in good health as she approached her 100th birthday.

Her son Paul Gies said last year she was still receiving "a sizable amount of mail" which she handled with the help of a family friend. She spent her days at the apartment where she lived since 2000 reading two daily newspapers and following television news and talk shows.

Her husband died in 1993. She is survived by her son and three grandchildren.

She's very brave to have done what she could to help, and must always be remembered for that.

Others on the subject include Debbie Schlussel, Michelle Malkin.

Malik Nidal Hasan's superiors ignored warnings

The AP Wire (via Hot Air) reports that senoir officers of the Fort Hood jihadist turned deaf ears and blind eyes, according to a Pentagon investigation:

A Defense Department review of the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, has found the doctors overseeing Maj. Nidal Hasan’s medical training repeatedly voiced concerns over his strident views on Islam and his inappropriate behavior, yet continued to give him positive performance evaluations that kept him moving through the ranks.

The picture emerging from the review ordered by Defense Secretary Robert Gates is one of supervisors who failed to heed their own warnings about an officer ill-suited to be an Army psychiatrist, according to information gathered during the internal Pentagon investigation and obtained by The Associated Press. The review has not been publicly released.

Hasan, 39, is accused of murdering 13 people on Nov. 5 at Fort Hood, the worst killing spree on a U.S. military base.

What remains unclear is why Hasan would be advanced in spite of all the worries over his competence. That is likely to be the subject of a more detailed accounting by the department. Recent statistics show the Army rarely blocks junior officers from promotion, especially in the medical corps.

I may have said this at least once, and I'll say it again: those superiors are going to have to take responsibility for their actions - or lack thereof - and resign from their jobs. Even in the med-corps, there has to be some kind of caution to prevent these kind of things from happening.

Update: more on this at Power Line, which tells some very important stuff about the political correctness that caused the tragedy.

Eric Rohmer, RIP

One of the most successful New Wave movie directors has passed away:

PARIS (AP) - French New Wave director Eric Rohmer, known for "Claire's Knee" and other films tracing the intricacies of romantic relationships, died on Monday. He was 89.

Rohmer died in Paris, said Les Films du Losangem, his film production company. The cause of death was not immediately given.

The director, internationally known for his distinctive personal style, continued to work until recently, with his latest film, "Les amours d'Astree et de Celadon," ("Romance of Astree and Celadon"), appearing in 2007.

In 2001, Rohmer was awarded a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his body of work.

Rohmer's films were full of subtle conversations and philosophical musings, romantic entanglements and love triangles. Often they took a light, chatty form, with serious themes hidden under the surface.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy paid tribute to a "great auteur who will continue to speak to us and inspire us for years to come."

"Classic and romantic, wise and iconoclast, light and serious, sentimental and moralist, he created the 'Rohmer' style, which will outlive him," Sarkozy said in a statement.

Six of Rohmer's films comprised an influential cycle of "moral tales" that addressed the thorny questions of modern love: whether to compromise your beliefs in the face of passion, for example, or how to maintain a sense of individual freedom in a relationship.

In 1969's "Ma nuit chez Maud" ("My Night at Maud's"), a churchgoing young man played by Jean-Louis Trintignant must choose between a seductive divorcee and a woman who meets his ideals. In 1970's "Le Genou de Claire" ("Claire's Knee"), a diplomat is overwhelmed by his desire to stroke the knee of a teenage girl he meets.

Former French Culture Minister Jack Lang called Rohmer "one of the masters of French cinema."

Serge Toubiana - who heads Cinematheque, France's famous film preservation society, said Rohmer worked closely with his crews and described his creative process as a collaborative effort with the actors.

"He knew that he needed them and because of that he showered them with love," Toubiana told France Info radio. "Each film was a kind of shared game, with its own rules in which each person played his role."

Born in 1920 in the central French city of Tulle, Rohmer was a literature professor and a film critic for the influential Cahiers du Cinema magazine, becoming its editor.

Later, as a director, he became a leading force in France's convention-smashing New Wave cinema, alongside directors Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

Along with his series of moral tales, Rohmer produced a cycle of modern-day relationship fables for each season of the year, and another dubbed the "comedies and proverbs" cycle.

Information on funeral arrangements was not immediately available.

I saw a few of Rohmer's films years ago, and he was very good at his trade. A shame that he too has now left us.

Don't forget the Saudi prince who could be influencing FOX

Joseph Farah reminds one and all about FOX News owner Rupert Murdoch's relations with Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the very millionaire whose donation offer of $10 million was rightfully turned down by former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani after the prince attempted to tie it to blaming of America/the victim/Israel. And, he also notes how FOX has been giving a platform to CAIR:

It is with that expectation I carefully alert you to a major and disturbing concern I have about the Fox News Channel – one based on personal experience as well as facts that have been withheld from you if Rupert Murdoch's alternative to CNN is your primary source of news.

Fox News is still inviting spokesmen from the Council on American-Islamic Relations on its programs where they pose as reasonable and legitimate representatives of a Muslim "civil rights" organization, despite the fact that CAIR has been definitively exposed by the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department as a "co-conspirator" in the largest terrorism-financing trial in American history, as a front for the international Muslim Brotherhood – the notorious parent organization of Hamas and al-Qaida – and for being closely associated with a large number of convicted terrorists or felons in terrorism probes, as well as suspected terrorists and active targets of terrorism investigations.

Recently, after the "Christmas bomber" almost killed 288 people over Detroit, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper was given an entire segment on "The O'Reilly Factor" to argue that Muslims should never be profiled because being a follower of Islam doesn't make an airline passenger any more likely to be a terrorist than being a Swedish grandmother. The real danger, he explained, is that Muslims in America are going to be unfairly persecuted by bigoted Americans.

How could this happen, especially after the recent release of the devastating exposé of CAIR and its network of jihadi-supporting allies, "Muslim Mafia," which caused leaders of the bipartisan Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus to hold a Capitol Hill press conference demanding multiple federal investigations of CAIR?

More to the point, why has Fox News, among others in the media, blacked out any and all reporting on the blockbuster book, based in part on a daring and successful six-month-long, ACORN-style undercover operation to expose CAIR?

For some possible answers, let me introduce you to Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal, nephew of Saudi King Abdullah. You might remember Talal for his moment of infamy in the landscape of American political culture: In October 2001, right after the World Trade Center destruction at the hands of primarily Saudi terrorists, New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani famously turned down his offer of a $10 million donation for disaster relief after Talal suggested U.S. policies in the Middle East were actually to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A few years ago, Talal, who then owned 5.5 percent of the Fox News Channel's parent company, News Corp., boasted of his influence on the network's principal owner, Rupert Murdoch, and explained how he persuaded him to alter on-air content about "Muslim riots" in France to make them more palatable to adherents of Islam.

More recently, Talal and Murdoch greatly expanded their business partnerships to give Murdoch a significant stake in Middle East television programming and advertising.

Meanwhile, CAIR, which claims falsely to receive "no support from any overseas group or government," was revealed in "Muslim Mafia" to have received a $500,000 gift from the very same Saudi Prince al Waleed bin Talal – not to mention gifts of $112,000 from Saudi Prince Abdullah bin Mosa'ad, at least $300,000 from the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, $250,000 from the Islamic Development Bank and at least $17,000 from the American office of the Saudi-based International Islamic Relief Organization.

Do I begin to paint a picture of possible media compromise?

If Talal was able to influence content on the Fox News Channel back in 2005 as a minority shareholder in News Corp., is it not likely he and his Saudi friends would have a much more significant influence on Fox News today as major partners of the principal owner?

You know, this is why I profess considerable surprise that some conservatives spectacularly fail to make a note of this, presumably because they're afraid it could complicate their chances of making appearances on FOX. I'd already read about this 5 years ago, and it's clear that even today, Talal is still a problem. In fact, I seem to recall there's even a disgusting reporter for FOX named Phillip Keating who played the role of apologist. It's funny how even today, quite a few liberals dislike them.

I'm going to just say one more thing here, that if CAIR is hopefully indicted at last, FOX is going to be in an embarrassing position - perhaps deservedly - for continuing to provide them with a platform with no questions asked.

Deputy foreign minister visits Hebron

Israel National News reports that deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon and another member of Yisrael Beitenu have paid a visit to Hebron's Jewish community, a very positive step.

Yemen is a training ground for more terrorists

CBS News reports that EunuchBomber Umar Farouk Abdumutallab has boasted this, and it could be quite probable (via Hot Air Headlines):

British Intelligence has confirmed perhaps the most chilling boast that accused Christmas Day bomber Umar Abdulmutallab made to investigators after his arrest: that close to 20 other young Muslim men were being prepared in Yemen to use the same technique to blow up airliners, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian reports exclusively.

"I think the fact we know that there are other operatives being trained by al Qaeda in Yemen is extremely troubling, and is the most dangerous dimension to come out of the December 25th event," said CBS News national security analyst Juan Zarate.

That is why, sources say, the U.S. government issued this directive last Sunday - announcing "enhanced screening" for "every individual" on U.S.-bound flights from 14 countries, including Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen.

Surely this isn't why sanctions should be imposed upon Yemen too?

On a related note, Abdumutallab himself has plead not guilty in his arraignment (also via Hot Air Headlines). How many of these Islamic culprits in serious cases like these vehemently deny their guilt?

How much money would it cost to provide security for the trial of Gitmo detainees in NY?

According to NYC mayor Bloomberg, $400 million (Hat tip: IRIS' Israel Blog):

New York City projects it will cost more than $400 million to provide security if the pre-trial preparation and trial of the suspects in the Sept. 11 terror attacks takes two years, which insiders say is virtually certain, according to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The cost of the upcoming terror trials in this New York City courthouse for Guantanamo Bay detainees charged as 9/11 co-conspirators, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, will likely be more than $400 million and could go as high as $600 million.

It will cost another $206 million annually if the trial runs beyond two years, which some fear is possible, the mayor’s office estimates.

And this is just one more reason why America cannot afford to have this taking place on its shores - it is costing the country tons of money needed for much better things.

A couple more short items

Another arrest has been made in the case involving the terrorist Najibullah Zazi:

NEW YORK – Two men were arrested Friday in the investigation of a bomb plot targeting New York City that previously led to charges against a Colorado airport driver.

The arrests in New York of Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay were part of "an ongoing investigation" by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to Special Agent Richard Kolko, who declined to comment further.

There were no immediate details on the charges against the men, according to Kolko and Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn.

Nardoza said the men were expected to appear in court later Friday.

Medunjanin's attorney said the FBI seized his client's passport on Thursday. Robert C. Gottlieb said the search warrant indicated the passport was sought as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Here's an interesting story about a class project being done for Yad Vashem involving pennies (via Power Line).

Would Gitmo prisoners really resist a transfer to Illinois? How ironic if they do.

The IAF has struck 4 targets in Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas firing another katyusha rocket that landed near Ashkelon.

Recovering Liberal (yes, it's a conservative blog) is appalled at Rick Moran, the Pajamas Media editor in Chicago. And I'm going to agree here in full. I once found Moran voicing some very questionable statements for a would-be conservative, and here's one example, and frankly, I think the less said about Moran, the better.

George Galloway not welcome in Egypt

I never thought a country he'd likely be in support of would turn against him, but they have:

Egypt has declared renegade British politician George Galloway persona non grata, accusing him of incitement after his harsh criticism of Cairo over delays in an aid convoy's entry into Gaza.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Friday said Galloway will not be allowed to enter Egypt again. The activist left Egypt that morning from Cairo airport.

Galloway led more than 500 activists as part of an international aid convoy to Gaza. They entered late Wednesday from Egypt after a month on the road.

On Tuesday clashes erupted between members of the convoy and Egyptian riot police in the Mediterranean port city of El-Arish, and dozens of protesters and police were injured.

The convoy was organized by the Britain-based group Viva Palestina, which planned to deliver hundreds of tons of aid.

How ironic that a politician who'd doubtless approve of Egypt's Islamic-run regime, which is slowly getting worse in its treatment of Christians, would be shunned by the very same Islamists whom you'd think would actually like him.